


Meet Fuzz

by ninjamcgarrett



Category: Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types, Wolverine and the X-Men
Genre: Kitten, only a brief appearance at the end by Tony but totally worth the snark
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-28
Updated: 2012-12-28
Packaged: 2017-11-22 17:54:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,694
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/612588
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ninjamcgarrett/pseuds/ninjamcgarrett
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Logan is out and about NYC one morning and finds an abandoned, injured kitten. Of course, he can't say no to the tiny ball of fur and adopts her. (In this fic, he's joined the Avengers.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Meet Fuzz

Logan rolled his shoulders, shaking water off his jacket. The morning had started out promising, cloudy skies on a slow Saturday. He’d decided to leave the Tower and go to Battery Park for a while to watch the water. Logan loved the waterfront in the late fall. The activity and people-watching it afforded him let him feel a part of the bustling city when he wanted to escape most from it. It helped keep the need to run back to the solitude of the mountains in Canada at bay.

Unfortunately, the day hadn’t continued as it had promised. Not long after he’d arrived at Battery Park, coffee in hand, the light had darkened considerably and rain had begun to fall. It had been soft drops at first, fat and splattering on the concrete around him, then faster and harder. He’d hiked the collar of his jacket up to his ears and hunched his shoulders as he began to head back to the Tower. Logan had wanted a quiet day out with some peace to think. It looked like that wasn’t going to happen today.

A loud bark sounded from the alley to his right as Logan made his way up the street, other pedestrians jumping out of the way once they caught sight of the glower on his face. Logan thought nothing of the bark until it sounded again, urgent and high-pitched. It was as if the dog were trying to get his attention.

With a groan, Logan turned into the alley, deciding to investigate. He tossed his empty coffee cup into a dumpster as he headed deeper into the alley toward the dog. The animal was sniffing all over an empty box tipped on its side and barking occasionally at it. Logan approached cautiously, unsure of the reaction the dog would have to him. The dog took no notice of him however and barked at the opening of the box again, curious and insistent.

Logan edged closer and the dog turned to eye him, sniffing the air for a moment to decide if Logan was a threat or a friend. Satisfied with what it picked up from Logan, the dog turned and trotted off down the alley, leaving Logan alone with whatever was in the wet cardboard. Curious now, Logan knelt down in front of the box and peered inside, expecting to see some old food or perhaps a dead rat.

What greeted his eyes was nothing close to what he expected to find.

A tiny ball of fur, soaked and shivering, was pressed against one corner in the back of the box, as far from the dog – and now Logan – as possible.

An abandoned kitten.

Logan rocked back on his heels, still crouched in front of the box, a little surprised. The kitten couldn’t be much more than five or six weeks, barely old enough to be without a mother. Three long and deep claw marks had been raked down over its left eye. Where a bright gold eye should have stared at him, matching the one on the right, only swollen and bleeding skin and fur were there. A soft turning somewhere in the vicinity of where Logan’s heart should be surprised him. It was an orphan, like him. There was no mother cat in sight and no collar around the kitten’s neck to indicate that it had a home. The poor thing looked pathetic and not in the least feral. It was obviously cold, hungry, in pain, and scared.

“Ah. Shit,” he muttered.

Logan couldn’t just leave the abandoned kitten there. The temperature was supposed to drop below freezing that night. With the fresh eye injury and the rain, there was no way the kitten would live through the night.

He leaned forward carefully, one hand gently reached out, palm up. Logan held his hand a few inches from the kitten, stopping to let the gray ball of fuzz – that looked rather like a large dust bunny with paws and one eye – sniff his hand. The kitten did so, moving cautiously, craning its head out just far enough to sniff the tips of his fingers. Logan breathed deeply, calming his heart rate, waiting for the kitten to make a decision.

A mewl, quiet and broken, escaped its tiny mouth as it bumped its head against Logan’s fingers, closing the one good eye. Gently, Logan quickly scooped up the kitten with one hand and was a little surprised that it fit so neatly in one large palm. The kitten weighed almost nothing, as if it were really made out of fuzz and not flesh and blood and a tiny beating heart.

Logan stood, cradling the kitten in both his hands as it watched him with a bright eye. He looked at it and cracked a small smile.

“Don’t worry, little guy,” he said, his voice a low rumble in his chest. “I’ll take care of you and get you somewhere safe.”

He gently tucked the kitten under his thick leather jacket and crooked his arm so that it could rest there, close to his heart and against his warm chest. Logan turned once the kitten had settled in a curled position on top of his arm, and walked out of the alley. He dug out his phone with one hand and called Tony.

After one ring a semi-distracted Tony answered the call, obviously at work in his garage.

“What’s up, fuzzbrain?” Tony asked.

Logan just sighed at the nickname. “Tony, can you have Jarvis find an emergency animal hospital nearby me?”

“Why? You not feeling so hot?”

He stopped walking and tried not to growl, not wanting to scare the kitten.

“I sort of rescued a kitten,” he mumbled, knowing the field day Tony would have with that.

A cackle greeted his ears as Tony dropped his screwdriver and said, “You’re joking! What animal would get near you with all your porcupine-like qualities?”

“Tony, stop laughing and have Jarvis dig up an address for me. I’m getting soaked here in the rain and the kitten is pretty beat up.”

At the mention of the kitten, Tony quieted and there was a pause as he spoke to Jarvis. After a moment of conversation, Tony spoke to Logan again.

“All right, Logan, Jarvis dug up a place that’s open on weekends. Walk north another two blocks and turn right. You won’t be able to miss it.” He paused and then asked. “What are you going to do with the kitten once you’ve gotten to the hospital?”

“Haven’t thought that far ahead, actually. Thanks, Stark.”

Logan hung up the phone before Tony could prod him anymore and kept walking. He reached the animal hospital and pushed open one of the glass doors. He stopped for a moment to shake the rain from his hair and then walked up to the front counter. Thankfully there were no pet owners in the lobby, so he didn’t have to wait in line. The receptionist looked up curiously at him, taking in the towering figure and dark, tight-fitting leather jacket.

He gently reached inside his jacket and brought out the kitten, who mewed in protest at leaving the warm confines of his jacket. Logan set his hands on the counter, letting the kitten stay there, apparently where it felt safe because it refused to move off and onto the linoleum counter.

The receptionist caught sight of the claw marks on the kitten’s left eye and gasped. Before she could splutter out a question, Logan spoke up.

“I found him like this in an alley. Thought you guys might be able to help.”

“Of course!” she said quickly, standing and grabbing a clipboard before paging the on-staff veterinarian to meet them in one of the examination rooms.

The woman – Jackie, according to her nametag – reached out to take the kitten from his hands but let go when the kitten dug all of its claws into Logan’s palms and shrank back from her. She eyed it for a moment, taking in the way Logan curled his hands defensively around the shivering kitten and watched how the kitten relaxed when he did so.

He looked up at her and smiled. “Guess he’s a little shy.”

“I think it trusts you since you rescued it,” she said, a smile on her face. “Come with me. I don’t want to scare it anymore than necessary. You can hold on to him until Dr. McManus finds a way to gently pry him off you.”

Logan followed her back into one of the examination rooms, the little ball of fuzz still cradled in his hands, its little pink nose peaking up over Logan’s fingers to sniff the air. He tried to set it down on the table but the kitten still refused to leave his hands, mewing at him indignantly. Sighing, he propped one hip against the table and held the kitten in his hands on the table as the nurse checked the kitten’s vitals. A few minutes later, the vet walked in.

She smiled friendly at Logan and then did a double-take when she saw the kitten.

“You poor thing!” she said, speaking directly to the kitten, who was eyeing her warily. “Looks like somebody had a rough day.”

Dr. McManus reached out a finger to let the kitten sniff it and then smiled when it mewed and let her gently caress its head. Letting it stay in Logan’s hands, she examined the wound over the kitten’s eye before straightening and looking at him.

“The eye will be fine; the wound is actually worse over the skin around it. She’ll make a full recovery of her sight and hopefully be a big, healthy cat someday.” She smiled up at Logan. “You did the right thing, bringing her in here. The wound looks recent, not more than a few hours old. She would have lost the eye if the injury were from yesterday or a few days ago.”

Logan sighed, relieved that the kitten would be okay, and then blinked.

“Hold on, ‘she’?” he said, arching an eyebrow.

Dr. McManus nodded, chuckling. “I’m guessing you were too preoccupied with the face to check if she was a boy or girl?”

A blush crept up Logan’s neck and he nodded. “Actually, I – uhm – was more preoccupied by the cold, wet aspect. I don’t think she would have made it through the night with the big freeze heading our way.”

The doctor nodded as she gently scooped the willing kitten out of his hands.

“I’ll take her back and stitch up the eye. We’ll have to sedate her for that but it shouldn’t take more than half an hour.”

She chuckled and the nurse awed when the kitten settled in her hands as it had done in Logan’s hands. Logan watched, worried for a moment, before the doctor continued.

“What do you want to do once we’ve cleaned her up and taken care of the wound? We can keep her through the weekend and then take her to a shelter on Monday for a family to adopt her or you can take her home with you, if you feel up to the responsibility of a pet.”

She fixed him with a steady, firm gaze, eerily similar to the one Natasha used on him and Clint when their bickering began to annoy her. Logan did his best not to fidget as his brain worked through the options. The words that came out of his mouth next surprised him.

“Give me the time you’re fixing her up to think it over?” he asked, his eyes glued to the kitten.

 _What the hell?_ he thought as Dr. McManus nodded and left with the nurse. Logan knew it would be a very bad idea to adopt a kitten right now, especially one that would need so much attention and care for the next few weeks.

As he settled in one of the chairs in the lobby, Logan thought that it might not be such a bad idea after all. Adjusting to life with SHIELD and the Avengers hadn’t been easy and Logan had been beginning to think that he needed something to keep him company through the adjustment. There were nights when he couldn’t sleep and would lay awake feeling an ache in his heart over the loss of Jean and the mess that the X-Men had become. Those lonely moments, even though he lived in Stark Tower temporarily thanks to Steve’s generosity until he found a place of his own, made him wonder if having a kitten would help.

Raising the kitten wouldn’t be easy, but it would be something he could pour his heart into, like he had with the X-Men. Cats were easier than people though and Logan wouldn’t have to worry about getting his heart ripped out again. They didn’t break your heart, leave you (unless you were an idiot and let them loose in the city), or turn into a giant fireball like Jean had. It would certainly be easier loving a kitten than opening his heart again. Maybe this would be good for him, he thought. And there’d be a warm body to come home to after long, hard missions without the emotional complications of having a relationship to deal with. All he’d come home to would be a fluffy animal who had missed him and was happy to cuddle with him without demanding long talks about commitment or children or any of the other sticky issues that came up with humans.

As Logan stared at the doors that led back to the exam rooms and operating room, his mind’s eye conjured up the image of that one golden eye and tiny, shivering body in the wet box that had stared at him helplessly. He remembered the way it had practically melted into his hands and groaned at the realization that he had actually felt pleased when it had trusted him.

He was a goner. The kitten had somehow found a way to turn him from the barb-laden porcupine that Tony and Fury liked to needle him about into a person with a heart and feelings. With a sigh, he resigned himself to taking the kitten home with him. They were both orphans and at least Logan could give the kitten a place to stay safe and warm in the world, which was more than anyone had ever done for him, aside from Charles and the Avengers.

Logan scrubbed a hand over his face, wondering just how many cracks Tony would make when he came home in an hour with a sleeping kitten. He could practically hear the peal of laughter from Tony now.

His morning had definitely turned out much more different than he could have ever expected.

Forty-five minutes later, slightly terrified of the responsibilities he was about to assume as parent – no, he thought determinedly, _guardian_ – of the kitten, Logan took the small pet carrier from the vet and left the building. One arm was wrapped protectively around the carrier and the other held a bag full of food, medicine, and a few toys that the vet had tucked in as a surprise for the kitten. He took a cab back to the Tower and endured Tony’s grumbling about his home not being a rescue house for all things furry.

Tony’s protests quickly died when he caught sight of the kitten, still sleeping from the light sedatives, in the carrier. His face turned a weird shade of red as if he were trying not to breathe and for a moment Logan thought Tony might actually make a noise similar to the one the nurse had made when the kitten settled into the vet’s hands. Logan bit back on a chuckle before taking the kitten to his suite, admitting to himself that the kitten _was_ cute.

Life at the Tower certainly would be interesting until Logan moved out, with a kitten running around who had the ability to almost make Tony admit that he liked anything small and delicate. Logan grinned; Old Iron Pants needed to be at a loss for words more often and his kitten might just be perfect for that.


End file.
